Introduction and background to the empirical approach to methodology

This chapter presents the background to the book and earlier articles that it partly is based on. What is special with the book - underlined by the subtitle “An empirical approach to methodology” - is that the discussion about the different methodological issues is based on empirical analysis. Two new datasets used in the book are presented in this introductory chapter. The first dataset is the motivations for awarding the Nobel Prize motivations in Economics and Physics, and the second dataset is 200 articles from American Economic Review (AER), 100 from 1990 and 100 from 2020. Groups for whom the book should be of interest are also described, both persons within and outside Economics who are interested in a more evidence-based view on the research strategy in Economics, and students reading methodology courses in Economics. The structure of the book and main arguments are also described in this chapter.